Ohio historical society settles with golf club to take back World Heritage tribal site

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio’s historical society announced a deal Thursday that will allow it to take control of an ancient ceremonial and burial earthworks site located on the site of a golf course, ending years of litigation.

Ohio History Connection will pay Moundbuilders Country Club in Newark to buy out its lease and end the long-running legal dispute over the Octagon Earthworks, although the sum is confidential under a settlement agreement. The deal avoids a jury trial to determine the site’s fair market value that had been repeatedly postponed over the years.

The Octagon Earthworks are among eight ancient areas in the Hopewell Earthworks system that were named a UNESCO World Heritage Site last year. The historical society, a nonprofit state history organization, takes control of them on Jan. 1 and plans to open them to visitors.

“Our guiding principles throughout this process have been to enable full public access to the Octagon Earthworks while ensuring Moundbuilders Country Club receives just compensation for the value of its lease on the property,” said Megan Wood, executive director and CEO of the Ohio History Connection. “And now we have accomplished those things.”

David Kratoville, president of the country club’s board of trustees, said he has mixed feelings about coming to the end of the legal battle. He said negotiations over the past two months finally landed on a figure “that allows us to survive,” but the future of the club remains in limbo.

Moundbuilders is in negotiations to buy another property, the nearby public golf course Trout Club, but members gathered at an emotional meeting Monday where owners were unable to make promises for the future, he said.

“For me, the news will be where do we land after 114 years operating on this site,” he said.

Built between 2,000 and 1,600 years ago by people from the Hopewell Culture, the earthworks were host to ceremonies that drew people from across the continent, based on archeological discoveries of raw materials from as far west as the Rocky Mountains.

Native Americans constructed the earthworks, including eight long earthen walls, that correspond to lunar movements and align with points where the moon rises and sets over the 18.6-year lunar cycle. The History Connection calls them “part cathedral, part cemetery and part astronomical observatory.”

The historical society owns the disputed earthworks site, but it had been leased to the country club for decades. History Connection had put the value of the site at about $2 million, while the country club was seeking a much higher amount.

In 1892, voters in surrounding Licking County enacted a tax increase to preserve what was left of the earthworks. The area was developed as a golf course in 1911, and the state first deeded the 134-acre property to Moundbuilders Country Club in 1933.

A county judge ruled in 2019 that the historical society could reclaim the lease via eminent domain. But the club challenged the attempt to take the property, saying the History Connection didn’t make a good- faith offer to purchase the property as required by state law. The country club argued that it had provided proper upkeep of the mound and allowed public access over the years — albeit only a few days a year.

Charles Moses, president of the organization’s board of trustees, said the History Connection is excited for the location to be “fully open to the citizens of Ohio — and the world.”

The settlement will be shared with the judge later this month and the case closed.